OU’s Gold Vibrations a cappella group wins regional competition

With its first-place finish in the ICCA Great Lakes Quarterfinal, OU's Gold Vibrations a cappella group is moving on to the semifinal round, which takes place in March.

This past weekend, Oakland University’s Gold Vibrations a cappella group took first place at the Great Lakes Quarterfinal of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), held at the University of Chicago.

Oakland tallied 443 points in the competition, well ahead of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University, which finished in second and third place, respectively. A total of 10 groups competed in the Great Lakes Quarterfinal.

Gold Vibrations now moves on to the Great Lakes Semifinal, which takes place March 4, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. This is the group’s sixth year competing in ICCA and its third appearance in the semifinals.

“This year’s Gold Vibrations group is working very hard and being very diligent in their preparation for competitions, and it showed in the quarterfinals,” said Michael A. Mitchell, professor of Music and faculty adviser to the group. “They know the bar was set extremely high by last year’s national championship and they’d like nothing better than to match that finish this year.”

Along with this impressive team performance, Gold Vibrations’ Brian Baylor won three of four special awards given in the competition. He earned Outstanding Soloist for “Freedom/Bottom of the River,” Outstanding Vocal Percussion for “What’s Really Good,” and Outstanding Arrangement for the group’s entire set.

Commenting on Baylor’s individual achievements, Professor Mitchell said, “I was not surprised at all that Brian was recognized for these awards. He is a Music, Theatre and Dance major who has a multitude of talent, a great attitude and leads by example.”

At ICCA competitions, groups are given 12 minutes to perform their set, which usually consists of three or four songs. They are judged based on a variety of factors, such as intonation, vocal percussion, phrasing, vocal blend, vocal dynamics, overall tone, choreography, general effect, arrangement and interpretation.